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Read this in The Manila Times digital edition. You can't tell Sabina Lopez-Vergara what to do. Here's a woman who got up and left for New York in her quest for independence while she was pursuing a degree in Communications at the Ateneo de Manila University. In New York, she wanted to level up her modeling career. She had loads of experience in the modeling world in the Philippines, walking the runways for designers, doing campaigns and being in the books of CalCarrie's since she was 18. Taking her modeling career to the next level meant living as prescribed by the agencies — sparse eating with the obligatory twice-a-day gym time. She also left behind a boyfriend, proving that the fire in her trumped everything else. The trade-in was a shoebox apartment in Times Square and extra jobs bartending or waitressing near Broadway. She discovered herself to be a tough nut to crack, lit by free tickets to musicals and plays from producers frequenting the bars and restaurants. She toughened up well into the 2008 financial crisis that dried up the gigs and reduced shoot extravaganzas to packed lunches. "The opportunity came, and oh my God, freedom! I'd be out of the house, out of my parents' purview, and I'd be able to figure out who I really was and what I really wanted out of this life," she recalled. Currently, the chief commercial officer of growing parcel delivery startup Ninja Van and mother to a 14-year-old son faces up to startup life action. It has been that way since her return from New York to finish another degree — this time, Psychology — and becoming a mother. The daily firefighting and problem-solving, which could frisk the bizarre and unexpected, also challenge her mommy time. The mental toughness burnishes a chill "girly girl" (her own words) exterior and her sensibility as a mother. She is uncompromisingly regimented about dinner time. She has to have it with her family, else, she might have not taken the role after all. "[Dinner time with family] was one of the things that I probably would not have gotten elsewhere," she said. This tipped her over to Ninja Van's job offer after being wooed by the president, a longtime collaborator of hers, for some time. "I tell them I just need to have dinner, and afterward, we can continue working." Before Ninja Van, she already adored the startup environment. She had been with Zalora, Hooq, an erstwhile streaming service provider, and Bitcoin. "I always liked the startup pace. I always liked the feeling that we were building something. I could contribute a lot more. I felt that in teams like that I got to be a lot more creative, and then I wanted to solve things, and we had a lot more freedom to try and take on a lot of risks," she said. She was in fashionable jobs and could not see herself in logistics. It felt unsexy. "Back then to me, to us Filipinos, parcel delivery has always been about LBC, 2Go. We grew up with these guys. I didn't feel there was something exciting about it then. But of course, they kept convincing me, and they kept talking about what they wanted to do for the organization, how Ninja Van could have been different, and that excited me, and of course, it's also nice to feel very, very wanted," she shared. Ninja Van stole into the night — the pandemic came and there was a lot of demand for parcel deliveries. E-commerce boomed. In the wind down, as people slowly milled back into the malls and place-based experience, there is the sense that e-commerce has made a dent on local buying habits. Ninja Van continues to work on this. E-commerce and online shopping in the Philippines run into a thousand quirks. The preferred mode of payment is still cash on delivery for most consumers. Subcultures and movements, many of them encouraged by the pandemic, required many adjustments. At some point, Ninja Van's riders would be carrying packs of diapers on their shoulders or hiring carabaos in more remote areas, as soon as Filipino mothers discovered the convenience of bulk orders. These new demands were pivot points: Ninja Van just as soon realized the need to invest in truck fleets. Ninja Van also found itself supporting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), some of which could not yet leverage the digital platforms available to them. Nowadays, as it proudly runs the biggest automated sorting facility of parcels in Cabuyao, Laguna, Ninja Van takes care of the digital needs of MSMEs. It has partnered with the Department of Trade and Industry for MSME week. Their platform, Digital Plus or Logistics Plus, equips sellers for e-commerce, which turns out to be non-instinctive even in the digital age. Then there's livestreaming. "I'm on TikTok all the time," Lopez-Vergara enthuses. "I use it to find all my restaurant recommendations, all my makeup. They're all there, and you're seeing a lot of growth there to address a younger segment that's figured out who they are in the online space and what to buy online." The young ones comprise a fast-growing market with runaway but well-defined consumption patterns. Not the office mommy Lopez-Vergara joined Ninja Van in 2016. The Singapore-based startup had not yet emerged from the shadows of the regular parcel delivery guys. But it has come a long way from what strikes as its garage startup days, when company operations were docked in an apartment in Knightsbridge, Makati. The painful start must have felt like New York all over again — where she brings up with much fondness, she got used to rejection after rejection. Getting Ninja Van off the ground meant disenchantment with the strength of connections, foremost. "Confident pa kami ni Martin (her collaborator from Zalora) that we were going to close all these clients because we knew all of them. [It] doesn't work that way, you really have to start from the bottom, go door to door. Ride my car, take a Grab, and meet with shippers regularly. So from super small ones to once a week shipments. All the way to bigger marketplaces. We were meeting with everybody." The first few months, with eight riders, eight staff members and two sorters had the scratchy feel of having to claw their way up any foothold. Business did not quite grow to the pace of effort. "We weren't getting the big guys that would help us establish that base load of volumes, so we could hire more, expand more. It was chicken and egg — do we grow the team first, or expand the business first?" Presently, Ninja Van occupies two floors of co-working space in Makati, employing hordes of the youngish set in an environment of work-life balance. Its parlors offer beers on tap, games and exercise machines. Years of difficulty have turned Lopez-Vergara into the "bank," as some of her staff members fondly call her. She had answers and analogous experience to all sorts of problems. Or she knew who to call. In this sense, she is also a "connector" and a "class president." She is a mommy to her son, but in the workplace, her girl-boss era is well on course. Ninja Van presently operates nationwide, reaching as far as Tawi-Tawi. This value proposition of being able to serve the remotest areas keeps them relevant and primed for further expansion. It also currently operates the biggest automated sorting facility among the Ninja Van network in Cabuyao, which could churn about 300,000 parcels a day. "We're still a big investment, continuing to expand sorting facilities, to address the growing need of our marketplace providers and the customers. The more the infra expands, the more people have access and will get hit by ads. You need to be able to fulfill that need," she stressed. And what of her needs? Lopez-Vergara is foremost a mom despite working all the time. The work has not stopped since she allowed herself to be drafted. But Ninja Van acceded to her terms. "To survive and grow in an industry such as this will require you to also survive and grow within yourself," she advised. "You have to be willing to make the sacrifices for yourself and not for everybody else." Just as New York was a solid choice, Lopez-Vergara pounded her decisions. "It was challenging for me to decide — I feel bad about this to this day — but I had to decide that I won't be there for all the regular things that a mom would be there for. I wouldn't be there for all the PTCs (parent-teacher conferences), sports fests, but I made that decision knowing that in the future, my son would know that women can work, and he would grow up knowing that it's OK for moms to work; it's an equal thing." Quick questions What really makes you angry? When someone speaks to me as if I have no capability of understanding the concept. What motivates you to work hard? Success What makes you laugh the most? Being with my friends and family. What did you want to be when you were small? To become a doctor. What would you do if you won the lotto? Spend a small amount of it and put the rest in an investment/savings. I would still keep my job! If you could share a meal with any individual, living or dead, who would they be? My paternal grandmother. I never got to meet her. What's the most daring thing you've ever done? Bungee jumping. What was the last book you read? "Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin. What celebrity would you like to meet for a cup of coffee? Cate Blanchett What is one thing you will never do again? Mmmm... eat woodworms. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Hopefully as a successful individual in whatever field that may be.
Read more: manilatimes
